荣誉：克拉科夫国际电影节铜龙奖 　　导演点评：这原本是大阪世博会时（译注：1970年），为住友化学工业展馆制作的影片。本片在世博会上是在三面银幕上放映的，而这里收录的作品则是对其进行重组后完成的。

荣誉：克拉科夫国际电影节铜龙奖 　　导演点评：这原本是大阪世博会时（译注：1970年），为住友化学工业展馆制作的影片。本片在世博会上是在三面银幕上放映的，而这里收录的作品则是对其进行重组后完成的。

日本漫画家千叶彻弥6岁前在中国长大，父亲在印刷厂工作，在日本战败后滞留中国的一年间，全家多亏父亲的一位朋友的舍命照顾。多年后，千叶再次来到中国寻找旧日恩人，寻找时听说因为会日语、在日企工作，恩人受了不少罪。

日本漫画家千叶彻弥6岁前在中国长大，父亲在印刷厂工作，在日本战败后滞留中国的一年间，全家多亏父亲的一位朋友的舍命照顾。多年后，千叶再次来到中国寻找旧日恩人，寻找时听说因为会日语、在日企工作，恩人受了不少罪。

这部幽默的影像日志引我们去发现一幅画作和一个无法形容的国家。这幅画作是勃鲁盖尔1555年前后所作《伊卡鲁斯坠海图》，这个国家是比利时。它们之间是哲学家、导演、精神分析学家、政治家、失业的人们……还有一位首相自问，“何谓‘看’？”——这部有着复杂脉络的影片即是作者给出的答案。

这部幽默的影像日志引我们去发现一幅画作和一个无法形容的国家。这幅画作是勃鲁盖尔1555年前后所作《伊卡鲁斯坠海图》，这个国家是比利时。它们之间是哲学家、导演、精神分析学家、政治家、失业的人们……还有一位首相自问，“何谓‘看’？”——这部有着复杂脉络的影片即是作者给出的答案。

"The Theme" is a film that had to stay on the shelf for almost ten years because of its "theme". Mikhail Ulyanov plays Kim Yesenin, a disillusioned and cynical playwright who uses the system by writing the conformist plays and enjoys the benefits of being the officially recognized and appointed "great Soviet writer" but who in reality has been used by a system and spent all the talent he ever had in writing the plays that had no artistic value whatsoever. Bitter irony lies in the name of the character: Sergei Yesenin was a real life enormously talented, widely popular and beloved Russian poet who committed suicide at the age of 30 in 1925 because he could not fit in the Soviet Russia. Kim Yesenin in the movie suffers the writing block and arrives to the small provincial town with a friend and a young mistress in search of inspiration. He meets an attractive, intelligent and well educated museum guide named Sasha (Inna Churikova never looked so beautiful and sophisticated and I finally understood why Panfilov always had been fascinated by her face, never conventionally pretty) who used to be a big fan of his earlier works but has a lot of unflattering things to say about his officially praised outings. Sasha is in love with a talented historian who had made a very difficult and life changing decision to emigrate from the Soviet Union. He had lost his job by becoming a dissident and had to work as a gravedigger to support himself while waiting for permission to leave the country. Those who never had to emigrate from their country knowing that they might leave forever and never be allowed to go back to see their loved ones and the places dear to their heart again would not fully understand why Panfilov's film had to stay on the shelf for almost ten year after it was completed. It was released only during the "perestroika" in 1987 and I saw it then. I respect Panfilov for his siding with the real artists rejected by the system but his film is not only a courageous statement against the conformity suffocating cultural life under the Brezhnev regime which would be later called "period zastoya" or "stagnation", it is a memorable work of cinema with very good performances from his muse, Inna Churikova, Mikhail Ulyanov, and supporting cast.

"The Theme" is a film that had to stay on the shelf for almost ten years because of its "theme". Mikhail Ulyanov plays Kim Yesenin, a disillusioned and cynical playwright who uses the system by writing the conformist plays and enjoys the benefits of being the officially recognized and appointed "great Soviet writer" but who in reality has been used by a system and spent all the talent he ever had in writing the plays that had no artistic value whatsoever. Bitter irony lies in the name of the character: Sergei Yesenin was a real life enormously talented, widely popular and beloved Russian poet who committed suicide at the age of 30 in 1925 because he could not fit in the Soviet Russia. Kim Yesenin in the movie suffers the writing block and arrives to the small provincial town with a friend and a young mistress in search of inspiration. He meets an attractive, intelligent and well educated museum guide named Sasha (Inna Churikova never looked so beautiful and sophisticated and I finally understood why Panfilov always had been fascinated by her face, never conventionally pretty) who used to be a big fan of his earlier works but has a lot of unflattering things to say about his officially praised outings. Sasha is in love with a talented historian who had made a very difficult and life changing decision to emigrate from the Soviet Union. He had lost his job by becoming a dissident and had to work as a gravedigger to support himself while waiting for permission to leave the country. Those who never had to emigrate from their country knowing that they might leave forever and never be allowed to go back to see their loved ones and the places dear to their heart again would not fully understand why Panfilov's film had to stay on the shelf for almost ten year after it was completed. It was released only during the "perestroika" in 1987 and I saw it then. I respect Panfilov for his siding with the real artists rejected by the system but his film is not only a courageous statement against the conformity suffocating cultural life under the Brezhnev regime which would be later called "period zastoya" or "stagnation", it is a memorable work of cinema with very good performances from his muse, Inna Churikova, Mikhail Ulyanov, and supporting cast.